If we say, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,” our commitment to Him at that moment causes us to be drawn with the same cords of love for humanity and obedience to God. We’re put in the same harness. “Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me,” invites Jesus, and yoked with Him, we must be drawn to the cross. “In this world you shall have tribulation” and if you are seeking a light and easy Christianity, you must face the fact that as we are united to Him, the world unites in its hatred of Christ and His followers. He said it in John: “If you were of the world, the world would love its own, but because you are not of the world and I have elected you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” Jesus said, “I must die. I must rise again,” and this we must say with Him.
Why “must” Christ suffer? This imperative was all through the life of Christ. In Matthew 16:21 it says, “He must go to Jerusalem.” In Matthew 26:53-54, Jesus says He could call twelve legions of angels to rescue Him, “but how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?” Here in Mark 8:3 1, “The Son of man must suffer many things”; in Mark 9:31, “The Son of man must suffer many things and they will kill Him.” Back in His childhood He said, “Do ye not know that I must be in My Father’s house?” (Luke 2:49) In Luke 4:43, “I must preach ... to the other cities also”; in 9:22, “The Son of man must suffer many things”; and in Luke 13:33, “I must go on My way today and tomorrow and the day following,” when He is referring, to the necessity of going to Jerusalem to meet His death. I must. I must.
But as He leads us along, we must follow. That is why the next incident Mark records (8:27-33) is so significant. The heart of this passage is Jesus’ declaration that He must go to Jerusalem to suffer and die and that He must rise again. But Jesus began by asking them, “Who do men say that I am?” They told Him that some said John the Baptist, who had just been beheaded (6:14-29). Not only was this thinking nonsensical and superstitious, it was also depraved, in that it misconceived what John the Baptist was and what Jesus was. Also, some were saying He was Elijah, and some, one of the prophets. These men were all human beings who were taught by and filled with the Holy Spirit, but they were fallible men. The people had totally failed to understand the nature of Jesus, for this was God. For people to think that He was John the Baptist or Elijah was not only a sin, it was blasphemy. It wasn’t right for them to think of Jesus as a great prophet when this was the Lord God Almighty.
We see another aspect of Jesus’ dealing with unbelief in the healing of the blind man outside of Bethsaida (8:22-26). This was the only recorded gradual miracle performed by Jesus Christ; a partial healing was followed by a second touch and complete restoration of sight. Jesus could have accomplished this miracle any way He wished; why did He do it this way, outside the village alone, using His spittle, and commanding the man to keep still about it?
Jesus’ next act in Mark’s account is a very public one—he repeats a spectacular miracle by feeding four thousand people (Mark 8:1-10). I believe that by this particular repetition Jesus shut the mouths of all objectors. Henceforth only His bitterly prejudiced enemies can dispute Him.
